


He was expecting Jack Kirby

by William_Magnus



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Afterlife, I would say I am sorry but, heroic death, yeah not sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 23:04:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9406874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/William_Magnus/pseuds/William_Magnus
Summary: At the end of the line Tony Stark expected to answer questions about the life he lead, and face some of the people he wronged, but that aside what happened really did comes as a surprise.





	

"Owwww..."

The figure laying sprawled out on the ground could only moan when he first came too.

"I...survived? Damn I am good, that should have left me spread across the five Burroughs and...not even feeling much pain really now that I think about it."

"Actually Mister Stark, about that..."

The new voice was prim, and proper with just a hint of an English accent. In fact he sounded almost like that of the AI that ran the more routine parts of the Iron Man suit that he created after the passing of his oldest and most dear friend.

"J-Jarvis?"

"Not quite, you can call me Peter." There was a sound of movement and the voice came closer. "This might actually be easier if you were not laying on my office floor..."

Opening his eyes Tony Stark, the invincible Iron Man himself, found himself first blinded a bit by the bright lights before starting to focus on the man leaning over him offering a hand up. Not one to refuse an offer of help that did not come with him having to admit he had been wrong Tony let himself be helped to his feet while taking in an office that reminded him rather strongly of a public school principal's office.

"Right, yeah, sure ok Peter was it? Pete, you were going to correct me on something? And while your at it...any chance at a pot of coffee and an explanation of why I am here...or where here is?"

"Of course." The tall blond man that had helped Tony to his feet adjusted his extremely well cut blue pinstripe suit a little and then snapped causing a cup of perfect smelling coffee to appear in Tony's right hand. "Before you ask, no not Starbucks. Their franchise agreements are with...other parties. That actually comes form a little place a few blocks from your LA corporate offices that a friend of the Boss fell in love with while in the area. Pretty good if you ask me, although they tend to add a little too much cream for my tastes. As for your other questions those are all answered in a way by explaining just where you were wrong. Specifically about your surviving your most recent bid to save your Earth. It worked by the way, but really you should think about the consequences of tempting fate at your age."

"Hell I may be an octogenarian but I..." Tony was on his feet in an instant ready to give the man talking to him an piece of his mind before he noticed something about the hand he was waving in front of Peter's face. His smooth, strong, and above all else young hand. The hand in front of him looking so different from how it had not a few minutes, at least to him, earlier had Tony quickly searching through the office till he could find a reflective surface. He found a nameplate polished to mirror like levels that revealed a face he had not seen in decades. "I...I'm..."

"The dead tend to revert to how they see themselves more than how they looked when they died. No matter how time ravaged you, you Mister Stark always had enough ego to see yourself in your prime."

"That means I am...and then your really..."

"Close enough. I was named Peter in life and I was canonized a saint after death but...not exactly the same one that is believed to guard the pearly gates. Which, so you know, we rarely use anymore. What did the Boss call them? Ah yes, tacky gaudy pieces of bling so camp even Liberace couldn't stand them."

"Wait a moment, God said..."

"Ahh, not God. God is a name of a species not a person. The Boss never liked being known by that. We call him Boss, or if we want to get formal One Above All, or Creator, or any of an endless number of titles. Few people even use his name but...they tend to be special cases. That said, I normally would start the review process and then send you on to processing but..."

"But? But what? I really don't like the tone of voice you said that in."

"..yeah...but...you have an asterisk next to your name here on the list. That means....well it means special procedures and your review is kind of going up the chain of command."

"Special procedures? Review?!? Are you saying I am dead, made it to Heaven and there is a chance your not letting me in? Even after all I did in life?"

"No no no, well not necessarily. Look, the living have so many beliefs and belief systems, especially humans, that we put in a review system to make sure not only does everyone belongs but ends up where up here they belong. I mean, you wouldn't want to drop a Southern Baptist into Nirvana or a Zen Buddhist into the middle of a drinking contest in Valhalla right?" Peter starts flipping through some pages on his desk shaking his head. "You're a hero so there is little chance you don't belong but.." He stops and looks close at something his eyebrows raising up in surprise. "...Huh apparently the Living Tribunal Themselves are here to pick you up..."

As Tony found himself fading out of existence and starting to appear in a giant hand he was sure he could hear Peter muttering something about being amazed at just how far up the chain of command that he was going.

Tony found himself quickly being set before a great glowing throne, the kind of thing he would expect from the Big Man himself. He could barely make out anything more than a figure of a man in the blinding bright lights.

"WE HAVE BROUGHT HIM." The three voices of the Living Tribunal intoned leaving Tony behind.

"Good thanks guys. So, Tony Stark here you are."

"Yeah, here I am. Any chance you could turn down the light? Kinda hard to defend my life when I can't even see who I am talking too."

"Moses only got to see a shot of my backside, you think you should get more?" Tony could almost swear that the creator of all existance was...teasing him? Getting yelled at or blamed for things or even getting a disappointed speech he was expecting but...getting teased?

"Relax, your not on trial here. Otherwise I woulda had L3 stick around. No, there is a whole lot you have to answer for but on the whole you did good."

There was something about the voice that kept sounding familiar to Tony. A voice he had not heard in a long time but one he could remember and...for some reason made him feel guilty.

"Honestly, I just wanted to see your face when I told you that you're one of the people up here that I am going to insist use my name. Ahh, here left me deal with the light." There is a snap of fingers and the light from the throne dies in an instant leaving behind ... a teenager sitting wearing a red hoodie leaning back in a cheap desk chair...a teenager he spent most of his life after the ill thought out super hero civil war avoiding. "Call me Billy."

"Oh...shit..."

"Yeah, that's the face."


End file.
